New equipment designed to help improve farm efficiency

At a recent media event, Case IH representatives highlighted
a long list of new features on a variety of equipment that will be available to
farmers for the 2014 growing season.

The company has made a $60 million investment in the new
Combine Header Center of Excellence facility in Burlington, Iowa, and evidence
of this was obvious during the event.

Farmers will be able to move from field to field faster with
two new features of Case IH equipment. One option is a 12-row folding corn head,
and the second is a draper head with a slow-speed transport package that can be
deployed from the cab of the combine.

“To deploy the transport package, the operator lifts the
head completely up, and the wheels hydraulically unfold and move under the
head,” said Kelly Kravig, Case IH marketing manager. “Then he attaches the
tongue to the head and can either pull the head with the combine or another
vehicle.”

This transport package eliminates the need for a header
cart, and the head can be towed up to 25 mph. It takes about 10 minutes to
unhook the head and be ready for transport.

For the folding corn head, six rows of the head remain in
the same position, and six rows are folded up. The folding procedure also is
completed from the cab of the combine, and the snouts are designed at the
pivoting point to move the hoods up so there is clearance to fold them.

As farmers continue to manage more and more acres, I think
they really are going to appreciate the ease of operation and the speed these
new innovations will bring to the harvesting process.

For livestock producers, Case IH has added nine livestock
specialists that are out working with customers to assure customer satisfaction.
And, in the last three years, the company has introduced 11 new hay and forage
products.

The new WD3 series windrowers feature a factory-installed
auto-guidance system.

“This is the first windrower from the factory with installed
precision farming components,” said Zach Hetterick, Case IH livestock marketing
manager.

The auto-guidance will be run with the AFS Pro 700 monitor
that is common across all product lines from combines to Magnum tractors to
windrowers.

The Case IH DC3 series disc mower conditioners are available
in 13- and 16-foot cut widths and, they have an all-new large disc cutterbar
system, which features discs that do a nicer job for cut quality.

“The cleaner cut is designed to make sure you get all the
crop from your field into the windrow,” said Brett DeVries, Case IH marketing
manager.

“We have the widest conditioning rolls in the industry at
125 inches,” he noted. “So we are able to condition the crop more thoroughly,
more evenly and it improves the dry down.”

The new RB565 round baler produces a 5-by-6 bale, and it has
20 percent more capacity, as well as more reliability with a new pick-up. A key
component is the new rotor system that directly feeds material from the pick-up
to the bale chamber.

“There’s no hesitation for the crop,” the marketing manager
noted. “It’s a direct feed system.”

These are just a few of the highlights of the new Case IH
equipment for 2014 — a lot of new features aimed to help farmers improve their
efficiency with more capacity, add reliability and make the equipment more
user-friendly.